CHAP. for a speedy peace with the French Republic. For these objects IX. should the people meet. 'The inhabitants should thus be assembled in all the counties, in all the cities, and in all the towns and various parts of the Metropolis. They should not only meet, but they should meet frequently. Repeated meetings of the people tend to instruct and to open the public mind. They are necessary in every free country to keep alive the public spirit. 'The quick steps of every species of collective violence are equally unnecessary and improper. But nothing is more easy than for the people, actuated by a strong and common feeling of their common interest and proceeding with a common impulse in the slow but steady pace of legal step, to defeat the puny handful of the opposers of their inalienable rights, and to trample all their impotent projects of innovation in the dust. Such is the plan (as yet unconcerned with any set of men) of an independent individual, who feels warmly for his country's welfare; who now lives as a man of science in honourable retirement; but who never will be wanting to the people when the people are not wanting to themselves. FELLOW CITIZENS, at this moment of crisis he deems it his duty to inform you of his opinion; and he is happy in this opportunity of declaring to the world at large the ever unchanging and unchangeable public principle of your faithful and devoted fellow-citizen, 'Chevening House: January 21, 1799.' 'STANHOPE. The Union was a war measure, and it was against the war still more than against the Union that Stanhope invited his fellow-citizens to meet in protest. But now, when Ajax was emerging from his tent, some of his most experienced comrades were for delay. Many members of the Opposition had ceased to believe in the utility of effort. The spirit of the Constitution is lost,' wrote Lady Holland in her Journal' in 1798, ' and those who care about political liberty must be contented and no longer struggle for what the majority are disposed to yield up.'1 An active correspondence took place in the opening weeks of 1800.2 'Lord Stanhope,' wrote Polhill, a Kentish neighbour, to Wyvill, called here last night and brought a petition to our High Sheriff which I altered, and he agreed to. But then, not being quite satisfied with some part of his, I drew up this 1 Lady Holland's Journal, i. 203. morning the enclosed Address,1 which, with some very immaterial CHAP. alterations, he did me the honour to approve of, and desired me IX. to send to you.' Wyvill rejoined that he approved the Address, but that attempts by isolated counties were useless. On the same day he wrote to Stanhope expressing his doubts, and asking him to consult the principal friends of liberty in London and the neighbouring counties, and to concert with them what may best be done. We are now in the middle of winter; a new campaign cannot be opened for several months; there is time for counsel and previous arrangements.' He then wrote to a score of Yorkshire friends; but the replies were unfavourable to any action on the part of the county. With his own convictions thus strengthened he again urged delay. 'I hope that you,' he wrote to Polhill, Lord Stanhope and your friends in Kent will suspend your application to the Sheriff till there is a prospect of a powerful co-operation, first in London, then in Yorkshire and the other northern counties, who are only waiting for the proper moment to come forward.' 'I received your wise and friendly letter,' replied Polhill, and shall advise my Lord to stop. He is the man to bring, at a proper time, such a thing forward. We could not do anything without him.' Meanwhile Stanhope had also been making inquiries. My dear Wyvill,—I have been in town and executed your commission; and the result is as follows. Some persons are very sanguine about county meetings on the subject of peace. Others are of a different opinion. One opinion, however, seems general, and that is a wish for the people to call the meetings themselves. Nor do I disagree with this idea, though I have set my name to the Kent requisition. I particularly asked Mr. Fox what he thought had best be done in Yorkshire as to calling the freeholders only or the other inhabitants also. He is most clearly for the latter mode. Perhaps your best way will be for you to ask him his opinion about it. There is a middle mode, and that is the calling the householders. To this I should have no objection if others do not. But as for calling the freeholders only, the idea is quite scouted here. Almost all think the public wish for peace, though now torpid. I never saw Mr. Fox so well in his health at any time as at present. I went over to Holland House on purpose to pass a morning with him and his excellent nephew. He told me he had heard from you. Some persons 1 See Wyvill, Political Papers, vi. ii-iii. CHAP. in the City of Westminster wish for a meeting in Westminster. IX. But what is of most consequence is that it is not quite unlikely that a measure will take effect which, if it should, will produce more union among the friends of peace than any which has been thought of yet. Most cordially and affectionately yours, STANHOPE.' Wyvill replied that the letter revived his hopes. Peace, however, was still far off, and Stanhope no longer hesitated to return to the Chamber where he could compel a hated government to listen, if not to obey. Before, however, we embark on the political struggles of his later life, we must study in some detail the scientific activities which had claimed the greater part of his time and thought during the years of his retirement from Parliament. CHAPTER X STEAMBOATS AND CANALS I THE change from the metaphysical radicalism of the eighteenth CHAP. century to the more empirical methods of the Utilitarians was X. often accompanied by an ardour for the natural sciences. The Duke of Bridgewater, whose plainness of attire led him to be confused with his own workmen, aided Brindley to construct some of the principal canals in the kingdom. Lord Shelburne played Maecenas to a number of learned men, including Price, Bentham, and Priestley-the latter as notable for his radical opinions as for his services to English chemistry. Tom Paine, again, displayed considerable mechanical ingenuity in his designs for iron bridges. In Lord Stanhope advanced political views were joined to a sound knowledge of mechanics, based on his early training in 'practical' mathematics and his acquaintance with the fine machinery in use at Geneva; and, in middle life, he turned his mind to the application of the steam-engine to the purposes of navigation. His thoughts may have been directed to the subject by Symington's pamphlet published in 1777, or he may have heard, through his French friends, of the attempts of Jouffroy. As member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia he probably read Franklin's Maritime Observator,' printed among the Transactions.' Up to the year 1783 steam power had been limited to pumping, and consequently to the single industry of mining. Watt, who had been steadily working at perfecting the steam-engine, was resolved to adapt it to mill-work. The Albion Mills for grinding corn were erected at Blackfriars, and fitted with two doubleacting engines, the most complete and powerful which he had until then turned out of the Soho manufactory. The gear of these celebrated mills was designed by John Rennie (afterwards CHAP. the engineer of Waterloo and London Bridges) and was a novelty, X. being made entirely of cast or wrought iron in place of wood. Delighting in the society of clever mechanics and attracted by Rennie's practical abilities, Stanhope frequently visited the works to see what was going on. He designed a boat and tried it on the small lake at Chevening. My father remembers a very old gardener who often referred to these steam-boat trials, which took place in his boyhood. The boat was apparently started into action by towing, and 'when his Lordship thought she was going all right, without warning he would cut the rope and let us all down.' The anecdote is delightfully characteristic of the man, who was regardless of the comfort of individuals as compared with the advancement of science or the welfare of humanity. On March 13, 1790, while Miller and Symington were still experimenting with the first steam-boat on the Scotch lochs and before Fulton had applied his mind to the subject, Stanhope took out a patent for constructing ships and vessels and moving them without help of sails, and against wind, waves, current or tide.'1 The invention was notable for the shape of the vessel, the manner of guiding it, and the mechanism by which it was moved. The shape of the boat is tapered to a fine point at the ends, these being 'for greater safety covered with iron or other metal.' The length was three and half times the breadth. Its inventor wished to make it greater in length in proportion to breadth, but was prevented by the Act against smuggling (24 Geo. III), which forbade any of the King's subjects to own a ship whose proportions were in excess of these. As it could navigate either head foremost or stern foremost' and be impelled not only with the wind but against it, he described it as an ambi-navigator. His improvements in the rudder aimed at securing as nearly as possible an equal pressure from the water on both sides of its stern or axis, which contrivance the pilot may move or hold in any required position with much greater ease.' The most important factor is the mechanism for moving the ship. There is a slit in the centre of the vessel, and in this, on pivots, is suspended a long iron arm terminating in a hook, which Stanhope designates a vibrator.' In a fixed space it moves backwards and forwards from head to stern, carrying with it an attached plate called ' a free operator.' The 'free operator' is a thin plate of iron of considerable size, having its edges turned up square and strengthened by 'bars and braces.' Hinged on pivots fixed in the hook of the vibrator,' when it 1 Bennet Woodcroft's Specification of Patents, 1732. |